Group to Form O.C. Investor Relations Unit : Professionals: Thirty members break away from the L.A. branch of the nationwide organization to establish a local chapter.

Saying that Orange County has become a distinct business center, 30 local investor relations officials said Thursday that they are breaking away from the Los Angeles branch of a national professional group to form their own chapter.

The Orange County group will form the 30th chapter of the National Investor Relations Institute. Most of the charter members of the new chapter are now members of the Los Angeles branch.

“The reason for forming an Orange County chapter is simple: The county has matured as a business center, and there are more investor relations professions involved in the community than ever,” said Bill Lackey, an investor relations official for CMS Enhancement Inc., who has been designated president of the new chapter.

Lackey said that while the county’s members have been well-served through the Southern California chapter in Los Angeles, his group feels that it can do better with programs geared toward local company needs and attend “meetings and programs closer to home.”

Investor relations executives serve as conduits between companies and their stockholders. Over the years, the executives have become an important ingredient in public companies, paving the way for smoother company-stockholder relationships.

Gradco Systems Inc., the Irvine-based maker of office copier sorters, discovered this when it did away with this service last year.

“We’ve had complaints from shareholders that they have difficulty in communicating with us because we no longer have an investor relations officer, so we are in the process of re-engaging an outside investor relations company,” said Newton H. Lee Jr., Gradco’s secretary.

The local chapter will be officially launched next month, Lackey said. Its members include specialists with major public companies and consulting firms, such as Fluor Corp., AST Research Inc., Emulex Corp. and Archive Corp.

Orange County officials hope to become as big as the Los Angeles chapter, which currently has about 100 members, in a few years.

“I think we’ll be able to reach that same size in the next two to three years,” said Linda Smith of Cimco Inc., who is designated as the group’s treasurer.

NIRI, based in Washington, has about 2,300 members in 12 countries, most of whom are in the United States, Lackey said.